The old fellow left me, and I walked on toward my apartment, thinking over what I had heard. Dr. Vernon's invention a success at last! I remembered very clearly my days with the nervous, stammering little scientist, always sure that tomorrow would bring the great secret. And I thought of Ellen--indeed, I had often done so in the two years since I had heard from her. I wondered why she and her father had left Austin so suddenly, and why their destination had been kept a secret from all their friends. As for the matter of the red planes, I could suppose nothing but that the outs in Mexican politics were preparing a little military surprise for the ins. There have been too many military forces raised secretly in Mexico for one of them to be much of a novelty. Then I thought of the queer radio messages. They did not fit in very well. But my mind returned to Ellen again. I thought no more of the red machines. I had no thought--no one on earth had warning--of the terrible force that was rising to menace the world. In the morning, when I came down to the lobby, I found a curious clamor going. There was a hum of conversation, and people were passing around red-paper "extras". It was five minutes before I could get one to read the screaming headlines: RED PLANES RAID FACTORY THREE HUNDRED DEAD MILLION DOLLAR STOCK OF THORIUM TAKEN The account went on to describe the raid, at four o'clock that morning, of a fleet of red airplanes upon the Rogers Gas Mantle Factory, at St. Louis. It was stated that three hundred people had been killed, and that the entire stock of thorium nitrate on hand, worth over a million dollars, had been carried off. Much of a mystery was made of it. Police had failed to identify three of the four red-uniformed corpses left behind. Fingerprints identified the other as a noted criminal recently out of Leavenworth. No one seemed to have any idea why the thorium had been taken, since the chief use of that radioactive metal, which is similar to radium, but far less active, is in the manufacture of gas mantles. It was farther stated that the raiders had released "clouds of a luminous purple gas," which had caused most of the fatalities, and which seemed to have destroyed the gravity of metallic objects about. It was said that the factory building was curiously wrecked, as if the heavy machinery had gone up through the roof. At first it struck me that this must be simply a newspaper canard. Then I remembered what Bill Johnson had told me of the strange red airplanes in Durango, and of the mystery of the secret radio station. Then I was not so sure. I ate a little breakfast and hurried out to the landing field. I found Bill with a copy of the paper in his hand. His wrinkled face had a look of eager concentration on it.